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Repetitive Raw Booking

forgive me if this has been asked and answered, but I always feel that the reason Raw is so stale boils down to using the exact same roster week-to-week for months (if not years) at a time. This could be just me, but it seems that every one of the top 15 or so guys MUST appear on every edition of Raw, be it in a match or a big angle — thus killing any possibility of fresh matchups, because you can only shuffle that deck so many times.

I understand that USA would prefer to have Cena and Rollins and probably one or two others on every week, but surely no one at the network is insisting that Sheamus and Kane and Big Show and Miz and Orton and one-to-two Bellas never miss a show? If you're working on a Reigns story, why not have him go with a lower-card guy just for a fresh look, rather than Reigns vs. Kane/Show/Henry every damn week? Isn't a big part of the appeal of shorter shows that you don't know who you're going to see — that is, you watch NXT and maybe you'll see Balor, maybe you'll see Bayley, maybe not, so why don't you tune in to find out?

​Yeah, and the bigger problem besides the repetitive matches is that the matches you do see are all the SAME. Part of the advantage of being able to mix and match any combination of midcard geeks with getting much a style clash is that you never really see anything different out of them. I just an appearance on Ben Morse's Rewind podcast tonight where we were talking about Bash at the Beach 96, and one discussion that came up was the wide diversity of styles that you had. Cruiserweight opener, big man match, garbage tag team brawl, Malenko psychology clinic, Joe Gomez, etc. At any moment they could mix up styles and have, say, La Parka & Disco Inferno v. The Public Enemy on Nitro and it would be a giant car wreck of epic proportions, but maybe it would end up being awesome 2 times out of 10, you just never knew. Now you get a bunch of samesy **1/2 matches up and down the RAW shows and yeah nothing is really a terrible car wreck anymore, but nothing is really great or memorable either. And that's becoming a failing of NXT to a certain degree, because they're so focused on teaching guys to all work the same that it becomes difficult to break out of the pack on that show unless you're an indy guy like Joe or Owens or Balor. ​

That was one of the things I liked about Impact when I watched it, that not everyone in the upper card/main event was on each show. One week Angle or RVD or Storm would have a night off, not even advancing the feud (and another thing, you don't need story advancement every fucking week, you can let things simmer for a week and not involve another face to face promo), then they'd show up the next taping and Id be enthused because I wasn't burned out on them doing the same thing every week.

Maybe its a sports logic where we tend to get invested in teams that trade wins. So no one is a star and anyone can beat anyone else at any given time. But that would just make a league the WNBA and that's lame.

Another thing, even those throwaway matches on Nitro had a certain "anything can happen" feel that WWE matches don't really have, even though the matches are generally better across the board.

For instance, sometimes you'll get Fit Finlay randomly upsetting Booker T for the TV title, or Public Enemy scoring a rollup and winning the tag titles out of fucking NOWHERE. That was exciting, and while it was surprising, I don't know that it ever felt truly random. It simply felt like competition.

On Raw, R-Truth beats Wade Barrett, but instead of being surprised, I just roll my eyes at how it feels like a booking decision that was done just to do it, with no rhyme or reason or any payoff/follow-up. It's not an upset in the surprise victory sense, it's an upset in the literal sense of upset -- "This product sucks."

Yeah, I've been noticing for years that the skill of the average worker in the company is probably the highest it's ever been (compare it to the '80s or Attitude Era especially- both were full of weak brawlers), and yet... the in-ring product is actually rather dull.

The worst are guys like Sheamus & Randy Orton, who wrestle the exact same match every night, simply slotting in their 4-5 moves at different intervals. Makes them a dream to work with I'm sure, but it's dull TV. It's like "oh, now he's doing the Chest-Strikes/Rope DDT".I've said repeatedly on the Nitro reviews on here that the fucked-up undercard full of insanely random selections of guys is one of my favourite thing about Nitros. Greg Valentine, Public Enemy, La Parka, The Barbarian and more all on one program! Nowadays everyone's the same Cookie Cutter Vanilla Muscle Man (which is why the occasional weirdo like Bray Wyatt or Dean Ambrose stands out), wrestling the exact same smooth-wrestling WWE Main Event Style way of wrestling.

Even the '96 Raws had that "wtf am I watching" thing going for it sometimes. Mr. Backlund, Lawler or even JR could go off on tangets out of nowhere sometimes. The problem with everything scripted to the T is that we've all figured out the pattern.

I think the best thing about WCW was, that they didn't cared HOW the wrestlers wrestled. They didn't brought guys like Raven, Jericho etc. in the main event and stayed too long with the Hogans and Savages and Nashes BUT, they let the midcarders do what they could do best and didn't restrict their style in any way.

Even with the unique shitty years we have given 1995 it's own identity too. Now with years like 2006 or 2007 I can't remember a thing about them, nothing exists to identify them beyond maybe a WM match or the ECW PPV.

I remember matches and storylines up until about 2003. Everything after that blurs together for me and around 2008 I stopped watching for about 4-5 years. The last 2 years I started watching again has been a blur as well.

I'd think there are as many as it used to, but now things are much more easily reported (and WWE is much more upfront about it), and guys can't just start popping some pills and drinking a lot to deal with the pain like they used to.

I don't think Bully doing the Rumble was a mistake. He was between TNA runs and it gave him the opportunity to boost his profile again with a "Hey, remember this guy?" and put him on better terms with WWE for any future opportunities (DVDs, Network interviews, etc.)

Yeah, I remember the Reign of Terror, and HHH just squashing guys in the undercard for basically no reason- he killed Bubba's pretty solid midcard push DEAD, just like that. It really came across like HHH did it just because he could.

Corino was always kind of odd. You could see he REALLY wanted to be thought of as great, and was this proud defender of "The Old-School", yet he was never better in the ring than your average WWE Job Guy. Never had a great match, and wasn't even that high-level of a brawler. Just a semi-decent, forgettable character. I haven't thought of him in years. Christ, I've thought of MIKEY WHIPWRECK more often.Heyman was basically just stuck pushing guys like that at one point. Remember when ECW was pushing fuckin' C.W. Anderson like he was supposed to be a thing?

Not if they just sign the rights for the TV shows, which the network only airs on a later date. And who's to say that Netflix can't make them a good offer?I think that's an option to at least consider.

And they can consider it all they want, but Netflix is not going to be OK with selling the WWE's TV shows that are ostensibly to sell PPVs that Netflix wouldn't be making a cent off of. Major conflict of interest.

The divas are friends one minute and enemies the next. Switching heel to face from show to show. Creepy Paige kinda stood out and I remember the Bellas were fighting and Nikki won Brie's services and they were cool with each other after that.

The main event for Raw has been announced as Rollins/Kane vs Ambrose/Reigns, which is absolutely boring because I feel like we have had 900 variations of this match in the last half a year. This is not going to make me tune in.

According to Cult WWE style is a wonderful mix of Puro and indys that makes the greatest style in the world.I mean, he's wrong, but WWE has got some people believing it'd the best in ring product in the world.

I like in the behind the scenes video of Jarrett's return, when he gets to the gate at Universal the security guard asks if he knows where he's going and Jarrett's like "No I've never been here before", like the guard is going to say "Good one, Mr.Jarrett, but I've been following your career just like everyone else and I know you're a big fucking deal", but instead of he gives him directions.

Exactly! That's why there's no excitement to it. Who cares what happens? They'll fight again next week or later in the week on SmackDown. The Cena U.S. invitational matches felt fresh, at least, which was fun. I can't get excited over some combo of the Authority against Reigns & Ambrose & Orton and "As The Bellas Turn" week after week.

The original poster has it right though with NXT. You never know who you will get to see. I've been waiting for a Sasha Banks match for weeks now, and it'll be exciting when we get one... and likely a good match. The three hour show is killing Raw, but they would do the same thing with a two hour show.

Unfortunately the downside to NXT is that the WWE is doing everything in its power to never air a train wreck match again. You can't just manufacture great moments, they have to happen ascetically, and sometimes you're gonna have Jackie fucking Gayda before you get that out of no where Best of WWE five star moment.

The reason you haven't seen a Sasha Banks match is because she's been preparing for that one match for weeks now. Not to knock her because I love her to death but the way the business is is that micromanage these NXT matches to death.

I don't think it has much to do with NXT. The best wrestlers are always the ones who travel the world and learn different styles. That still is and always will be true. If there was no NXT right now, this would still be an issue.

I remember Ronnie Garvin knocking out Dusty Rhodes in 1988. Was basically just a midcard angle but it seemed huge. In 20-30 years, who is going to look back and fondly remember Sheamus coming back with a stupid mohawk or Lana turning face to be with Ziggler?

It's really just the live event tour. The company decides who they want/need to fill out the two road crews. They are sent off on their way, coming back together on Mondays & Tuesdays for TV. Creative is then forced to assemble the shows based on the talent at hand. Some talent may be brought in just for TV (like Lesnar, obviously), and local guys used in dark matches/tryouts and all that, but the bulk of each RAW is made from the two tour crews. This is why you'll suddenly see a guy like R-Truth added to the mix. He's healthy and the company needs a slot filled on a crew. Then Creative comes up with an idea for him. Or they don't, and he ends up being a jobber like Adam Rose or Bo Dallas and only occasionally gets on TV, usually SmackDown instead of RAW. All of this has led to a forced laziness where they basically lay out what the next PPV will be right away, then spend 3 or 4 weeks using RAW to build to that ("build" meaning to just use who is going to be on the PPV). This causes the repetitiveness, and seeming randomness of the following night's SmackDown, as that show is just filler again just using whoever is available. WWE is really just this big scheduling machine, and the creative aspect often takes a backseat to keeping the machine running smoothly. That's why you see so little spontaneity or surprises. Heel & face turns, tag teams breaking up, etc.

I've started coming in halfway through the show and even then it feels like a drag. The top of the hour promo segments that kill any flow they have going usually tire me out. If the last 90 minutes feels like 5 hours, I don't know how I ever went through the whole show.

And MAIN EVENT INTERVIEWS~!

Is anyone actually jused to the 3 hour show yet? It's been 3 years of it so far.

I was wondering. When was the last **** or above match we've seen on raw? The only 2 that really stick out in the last few years were Cena and Cesaro and Cena and Punk. Maybe Cena/Zayne. Besides the divas and the couple others that last like 2 minutes literally everything else has been ** to *** stars. If they have 3 hours to kill, they have more than enough talent to give more time for a match besides one with Cena in it.

You forgot to mention the weekly 3 on 2 Authority vs. "Two hot babyfaces" main event

I swear between 2014 Summerslam and maybe 2014 survivor series, they ran that main event scenario about 10 times. Part of the reason I have stopped watching the show all together. The week to week repetitiveness on RAW was huge in pushing me away

I guess there was a time when they'd take different people and tweak them to work WWE style, now people are trained to work WWE style from day one and never get the opportunity to work differently. And if they DO try to work outside the rules, they'll get told "Slow it down, Dolph. Just slow it down".

I've given up trying to understand the WWE; honestly, I have. They could change their booking mentality and Creative direction tomorrow if they wanted to—there's nothing in the world that mandates 5,000 tag team matches involving Kane, or 20-minute opening promos, or a reliance on women that don't know how to work. They have a depth of talent that just doesn't get used in any meaningful capacity, or at all in some cases. How one man can be so oblivious to the creative death of his company is beyond me.

It's the same story over the last fifteen years. Every time someone starts to make a genuine connection with the fans, the company fucks it up and turns them into just another guy. In that sense, Bryan is almost fortunate the WWE didn't get a chance to fuck him up.

Yeah, there was definitely a bad bump through a table and I don't know if the story behind it ever was conclusively stated, but I remember HHH took an ugly head/neck landing on it and held it against the guy.

Has anyone ever given Kingston a serious look? I've only seen a little of the guy, he's reasonably good in ring, and one HELL of a promo. You'd think that second one by itself would have Hunter giving him a call.

I can see how a large wrestler (Kevin Owens) who bullies other wrestlers (Sheamus) and gets his inevitable comeuppance (Rusev) would be unsuited for the WWE. Thanks for setting me straight, and also reminding me that booking Bubba Ray as a fat guy who did comedy spots was as far as he ever got in the WWE.

Yes, a tag team wrestler who saw his peak years pass about 8 years or so ago is totally the same thing as an indy star getting his shot at the big time now. Or a young rookie getting the opportunity of a lifetime. Good job.

P.S. I never said or suggested that Bubba Ray was only ever a fat comedy wrestler. Strawmen are a dead giveaway that you have no argument.

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